What Should Be Done About Pit Bull Owners?

ORIGINAL: denise m

nocturnal76, you actually make a good point as far as I'm concerned. Whether or not the public perception is right, fair, bias or whatever, that is the public perception. All I ever here offered as an alternative to BLS is education. Education like idog? We are just preaching to the chior here! For every new person that is educated on pitbulls, one other pit bull attack will send most of them screaming back to the other side. And, yes their will be an other attack- lots of attacks. Because there are too many irresponsible pit bull owners. I don't know if obedience classes or special certification is the answer but I think it is a great question that you have posed.

Thank you.  I think you're the only person that really understood me here.  I didn't think there was a way to ask this without getting people all defensive.  I mean I'm getting accused here by lady chewbacca to "read/speak better dog"!  Good god.  I'm just trying to see if any kind of organization has roposed a better system for the future.  They don't just let any person adopt a baby do they?  Regulations for breeders should be stronger.  I do realize that any dog can bite if not properly trained or socialized.  Funny how all these people making assumptions about me.  I have worked with many lovable pit bulls at the shelter.
 
And to the person who said she's tired of topics like this. Sorry, but this NEVER gets discussed.  No one here ever presents any possible solutions at all.  You all just get defensive on the subject.

ORIGINAL: chewbecca

What do I as an actual pit bull (mix) owner think needs to be done????

Well, for starters, I think that ALL dog owners should take RESPONSIBILITY for their pets.
MY pit bull isn't running the streets attacking people or dogs. MY pit bull is on her leash or in my house getting love and returning love.
MY pit bull is currently in training and I realize my dog's areas that need work and am working on them WITH her.

I as a responsible pit bull owner already realize the scrutiny I'm under as an owner to make sure my dog represents her breed well. I don't need people like YOU (OP) to tell ME that there is a pit bull problem.

Tell the lady up the street from me with the off leash shih-tzu. Or the couple down the street with the off leash mini-schnauzer.
Or, better yet, tell the people kitty corner from us with the Springer Spaniel that always likes to escape its house and rush my ON LEASH PIT BULL.

or, better yet. Why don't you learn how to read/speak better dog and THEN come tell me there's a pit bull problem.

Very well said!
I, also as a partial Pit bull (mix) Owner ( my moms pitty, i watched her most of the time for a year while mom had to work lots of over time)
say its not a specific breed that needs help. Deff. not Pit bulls as a single. My Neighbors have a rottweiler and a Golden retriever that wandered arout MY yard.  This is when i was with my mother. Sassy Actually saved me. the Neighbors knew their golden retreiver was agressive and let her outside any how! She had three legs and was still a mean girl! She lunged at my side and ended up planting her teeth in my thigh, sassy, my 'killer pit bull', nicely snarled then ran up against the Golden ret. pushing her on her back. The golden ret. jumped up and ran back home. Our neighbors weren't sued as they promised to pay for the med. bills and promised to nicely give their dog to the AC if the dog was out again.
My oh so terrible killing machine of a pibble, nicely KNOCKED the golden on her side to get her away from me. No biting, no flesh ripping, no blood. nothing.
And you are here to tell me, amungst the many other pibble owners, that I need to Take sassy to obedience class and training?
She's very well behaved, walks nicely on the street, warns us if some ones trying to break in. Greets any one , dog or human, even cat, with a wiggling but and happy Pibble smile.
The PEOPLE Need to be educated. Not the pibbles.  They need a law that states if you are to get any dog of any breed, you need to uphold to loving and caring for that dog. to make sure you know its needs and wants, and make sure you can pay for what ever you'll need in the long run. Whether it be training, obedience, med. bills, what ever.
You as a DOG owner need to fulfill your responsibility and make sure you stop problems before they BEC OME problems.

ORIGINAL: nocturnal76

 They don't just let any person adopt a baby do they?  

 
 
Yeah, but unfortunately they let anybody make a baby.  I feel that the answer to this is requiring training for every dog and dog owner, but the problem is that it is not enforceable. The singling out of one breed is one step away from BSL.  All this encourages is another breed to be ruined, because people will just choose another breed as the new "tough" dog.  The reason people with pits and other "dangerous" dogs get so defensive is because it scares us to death to think that one day someone will try to take our family member away.  In all reality there is no real way in my opinion to eradicate the pit problem, because we can't eradicate the stupid people who ruin various breeds for selfish reasons.

I want  to see low cost spay/neuter as well as low cost training classes offered and advertised as a way of offering people a way to be responsible without taking food off the table.  I know, they should have the $$ to take care of a dog and that includes training but in my mind, if they're going to get one, they're going to get one, and better that than being pts in a shelter as long as they're fed and loved.  I would think vets could use it as a write-off.
 
I've noticed school programs have a big impact on kids and how they behave around dogs, how they respect dogs.  I think it would be great if more people did school programs and girl or boy scout programs, after school programs, whatever.  What a great community outreach for local kennel clubs or training clubs!  Keep hitting them with it annually until just before high school--they stop listening then and it the impact hasn't already been made, it's not going to be.  We hit them young and hopefully it'll stick with most of them. 

Of course requiring new pit owners to attend a pit class would attract the people who already obey laws and likely would have pursued the same course on their own. You can't enforce laws on people who ignore laws. For example, consider the low levels of compliance generally seen in dog licensure. Like gun control - the laws will only impact law abiding citizens and not in any way affect those who ignore them

Paula yet again you've stolen the thoughts from my mind!

Not just for pitbull owners, but one way I think responsible behavior like obedience training, regular vetting, speuter, etc could be encouraged is by making a tax incentive out of it. Imagine if you could recoup some portion of your annual 'good pet owner' costs? I can declare my charitable giving, mileage from working with ridgeback rescue, why not proof of speuter, CGC, anual rabies, etc?

Paula

Good idea!

Can we define the "pitbull problem"?  

It's not a pitbull problem, it's an irresponsible owner problem.  It just gets sensationalized when a bully breed is involved in hurting someone but not when it's another breed.  Sounds like a pit bull problem then even when it really isn't. 
 
Heck, if there was a report every time a small dog bit someone there'd be no room for other news. 

ORIGINAL: Dog_ma

Can we define the "pitbull problem"?  

Well, I think that two aspects of the "pit bull problem" are that 1) they have a greater tendency to be aggressive toward other dogs than most breeds, and are more likely to inflict serious damage when they express that aggression, 2) pit bulls and pit mixes often make up the largest portion of shelter dog populations, with it not being unusual for them to exceed 50 % of the total in large urban areas.

I'm not at all a fan of breed bans for many reasons. But, if a single breed or group of breeds is contributing disproportionately to dog-problems in an area, I'm not knee-jerk opposed to solutions that target those specific breeds. I don't think the suggestion at the beginning of this thread of requiring a training class of pit bull owners is workable because it immediately raises the question of who is going to offer these classes. I can see quite a cottage industry in "pit bull training classes" developing with either no quality control, or a huge expensive and likely ineffective bureaucracy arising to somehow license the instructors. I would lean more toward mandatory spay/neutering of any pit bull that hasn't passed a CGC test by the time it is 18 months old, with a renewal of the CGC required sometime between the age of two and three. Sure, this is an imperfect "solution". Litters could happen before the dog is 18 months old. CGC's are pretty Micky-Mouse tests and the requirements to be a tester are pretty minimal. And of course this wouldn't be anywhere near perfectly enforceable. But, the animal control officer who happened to see the box to pit bull puppies for sale out of the back of the pick-up truck in the grocery store parking lot would be able to cite the seller. It would be difficult to advertise pit bull puppies in the classifieds and on grocery store bulletin boards which might give a few backyard breeders pause. And when the police or animal control happened to notice that there are a dozen scarred up pit bulls living on six foot chains in the back yard they wouldn't have to wait to be invited to the next "rumble" in order to confiscate the unneuterd dogs. This certainly wouldn't eliminate all pit bull problems, much less all dog problems, any more than laws against drunk driving prevent all traffic accidents. But it could make a significant dent in the problem without affecting owners of breeds that seldom end up in shelters and that seldom pose a danger to other dogs and the the people who walk them. And responsible pit bull owners would be able to continue to own the breed they love, and even breed it if they make the minimal effort to show that their dog can be trained to exhibit at least some very basic control in public.

Yeah, yeah, I know. People are going to moan that it's "not fair" to require this of pit bull owners but not owners of other breeds. Frankly, I don't think it's fair to demand that owners of field spaniels and affenpinschers and whippets etc etc meet the same standards as owners of dogs specifically bred to be aggressive to other dogs and of breeds that hugely contribute to the problem of homeless animals.

The overpopulation of dogs is a serious problem, and while there may be more of X dogs than Y dogs, the problem isn't a breed problem.  The problem is the lack of spay/neuter, and the intentional breeding of poor quality dogs for money or personal satisfaction.

I don't see a pitbull problem.  I see an animal population issue, an animal treatment issue, and a media issue, but not a pitbull issue. 

If pitbulls were really such terrible threats, there would be so many more attacks than there are.  How big is the pitbull population?  How well are most of these dogs socialized?  By any count there is a huge number of unsocialized untrained pits out there.  The streets should be running with blood. 

The only pitbull issue I can remotely recognize is the one that happens via a needle and ends in a pile of bodies.

Education like idog? We are just preaching to the chior here!

That has been proven (repeatedly) to be otherwise...
 
 

ORIGINAL: jenhuedepohl

I totally agree. We don't have a pit bull problem. We have a people problem.

This couldn't be more true.

I don't believe in anything that is breed specific. I don't think anything should be done about pit bull owners, but pet owners in general.

ORIGINAL: chewbecca

Tell the lady up the street from me with the off leash shih-tzu. Or the couple down the street with the off leash mini-schnauzer.
Or, better yet, tell the people kitty corner from us with the Springer Spaniel that always likes to escape its house and rush my ON LEASH PIT BULL.

 
 Bravo Chewbacca, I have to ditto the above statement. Here in my rural neighborhood, I have been rushed by a Mini Pin (every day) golden retriever, lab and another hairy mutt dog, all while walking my dogs on a leash. The problem is not a breed problem it is a people problem.

ORIGINAL: buster the show dog
Yeah, yeah, I know. People are going to moan that it's "not fair" to require this of pit bull owners but not owners of other breeds. Frankly, I don't think it's fair to demand that owners of field spaniels and affenpinschers and whippets etc etc meet the same standards as owners of dogs specifically bred to be aggressive to other dogs and of breeds that hugely contribute to the problem of homeless animals.

I'm done with this thread.
Honestly, it's this kind of talk that really makes my stomach turn.


Really, I have NEVER EVER seen a loose pit bull running in my neighborhood. In fact, the ones I *have* seen are on leash and VERY well behaved.

Does it tick me off that there *are* irresponsible owners of pit bulls out there that make the ones responsible like me and a lot of others, look bad?
YES.

But don't place breed specific laws on me and my breed of choice just because I don't own a whippet or field spaniel.
For the love of God. Sometimes I CANNOT BELIEVE that some people here consider themselves dog lovers and then come up with some crap like this.





There ARE just as many other breeds out there that were bred for dog aggression, too.
Don't come at the rest of us responsible pit bull owners, I'm sorry-DOG OWNERS- with some breed specific wording saying that
doesn't apply to just us pit bull owners.

And, SURPRISE! dog aggression isn't just something that rears its ugly head in dogs that were "bred" to be dog aggressive.
WOW. Shocker, huh?
Lately, I've heard far more complaints about dog aggressive labs than I have about pit bulls.

So, it's not just unfair to pinpoint pit bulls and THEIR owners, but it would be illogical.

Don't worry. Your field spaniel and your whippet are "safe" from my pit bull. I hope you don't let the fact that my pit bull (or pit bulls in general) exist keep you up at night. Because it's far more dangerous that owners like me have to fear the fact that another "dog lover" has these breed specific, ignorant thoughts going through his/her head.
Besides, my pit bull isn't going to be at your "show" anyway.